Reporting on English and Welsh wines

Monthly Archives: January 2017

There is a fascinating conversation among vineyards about whether the UK’s booming sparkling wine should be called British Fizz. Apparently it is already being called that in at least one restaurant in the US which is expected to be one one our biggest export markets (the country, not the restaurant!).
If everyone called it British Fizz it would solve a long running debate about finding a label that everyone in the industry can agree on. It has the advantage of being more inclusive than “English sparkling” or “Sussex sparkling” as it includes Wales, which has some fine vineyards but has not always been treated well by the English industry.
But there are two disadvantages. The first is that under EU legislation – which will govern us for the next few years British wine” means wine made in this country from imported grapes or juices.
The second is that three syllables do not trip off the tongue as well as two. A lot of memorable brands, though of course not all, have two syllables including Rolls-Royce, Google, Yahoo, Apple and, er, Champagne.
So why not just call it Brit Fizz or BritFizz? If you are ordering from a bar it sounds much better, and certainly more melodic, to ask for Brit Fizz rather than British Fizz (which sounds as though you are making a nationalistic statement (I want British fizz). It avoids the EU ambiguities of “British” and it capitalises on the fact that we are known as Brits the world over.
Someone claimed Brit Fizz sounds like something you take for a hangover but I don’t see the connection. It is something you drink in moderation to avoid a hangover.